France Telecom is the 3rd largest carrier in Europe and has over 216 million customers spread over mobile, fixed line, internet, digital television and IT services. Its CEO is Stephane Richard, and in a recent interview with All Things D, he had a few things to say about RIM. First, which speaks volumes to the media’s perception of RIM that doesn’t jive particularly well with the numbers, Stephane says “[RIM] is not really declining. It’s still popular in Europe.” Stephane also continues by saying that RIM has had quality issues and that in order to stay the course and remain competitive, it needs to address these quality problems. This would probably be a fair judgement as RIM has had a few devices such as the Storm that had many quality concerns and its old trackball hardware which caused many to be frustrated with their device. Here is the exact quote:

On RIM:

It’s not really declining. It’s still popular in Europe. They have customers and users that are quite faithful to them. It works more or less like a community of people. It’s often families that are big BlackBerry users, and of course companies.

They have had some quality problems in the recent period which is a concern, especially with the next generations of devices.

In my view as a customer, or as a partner of them, I think they really should fix very quickly their quality problems.

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2011/05/24/france-telecom-ceo-on-rim-not-actually-declining-but-needs-to-fix-quality-problems/feed/0The BlackBerry solution arrives on the Ivory Coasthttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2009/10/29/the-blackberry-solution-arrives-on-the-ivory-coast/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2009/10/29/the-blackberry-solution-arrives-on-the-ivory-coast/#commentsThu, 29 Oct 2009 17:38:25 +0000http://www.blackberrycool.com/?p=16576RIM have expanded into the Ivory Coast today. Through a partnership with Orange CI, RIM have announced that they will be offering devices and software for users in what is respectfully known as the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire.

Orange UK has confirmed that the Blackberry Pearl 8120 will be available on a Pay As You Go plan. From early February, Orange will be the first operator in the UK to offer Blackberry on Pay As You Go. The handset will cost £145, and the monthly BlackBerry Internet Service will cost £5. There will also be a color exclusive to the Pearl – indigo! Depending on how this launch goes, Orange UK will consider extending the offer to other Blackberry models in the not too distant future.

Stay tuned to Orange UK’s official site for the press release tomorrow.

”We believe that in 2009 this new BlackBerry smartphone will play a significant role in the smartphone market in Romania. Customers will easily recognize the optimal combination of price, design, functionality and services. Orange smartphone sales have grown by 20% in 2008 comparing to 2007 and we are positive that launching smarpthones such as the BlackBerry Curve 8900, which combines industry leading email and Internet access services with rich multimedia capabilities, will greatly appeal to our customers,” stated Razvan Sturza, Product Manager Orange Romania.

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is available in all Orange shops and partners’ stores in Romania. Prices range from 229 EUR to 329 EUR depending on the BlackBerry tariff plan chosen.

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In a commitment to bring the latest BlackBerry smartphones to the Romanian market, Orange Romania now offers the BlackBerry Curve 8900 in its extensive BlackBerry smartphone portfolio. The choice for customers has never been wider in the BlackBerry smartphone portfolio from Orange Romania, which includes the BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8120, BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8220, BlackBerry® Curve™ 8320, and BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphones, as well as four dedicated service plans starting from 5 Euros per month.

Sporting a sleek new style, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone incorporates video, text and maps, a full QWERTY keyboard and an intuitive trackball navigation system that gives users an exceptional mobile experience. The full-featured smartphone lets you take your favorite songs and videos with you and with its new 3.2 megapixel camera — including auto focus, digital zoom and flash — you can take sharp, print-quality pictures and send them to friends or post them on the Internet. The microSD/SDHC expandable memory card slot supports up to 16GB per card, giving users plenty of easily interchangeable storage.

“The BlackBerry Curve 8900 lets you stay easily connected with work, family, friends and the web – all on a beautifully designed phone that looks and feels great,” said Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. “The combination of features is perfect for people who want the renowned functionality and usability of a BlackBerry smartphone in a beautiful and compact design.”

Enhanced web browsing and multimedia features

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is a quad-band smartphone with EDGE network support, providing global connectivity, fast data access and powerful web browsing. The smartphone can be used with both BlackBerry® Internet Service and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server.

At approximately 110 grams and 109 x 60 x 13.5 millimeters, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 is the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone to date and comes in a sleek and refined design that feels comfortable for either one-handed or two-handed use. Its large, striking 2.4 inch HVGA+ display (480×360 resolution) projects vivid color and makes information easier to read. The BlackBerry Curve 8900 also provides flexible connectivity with built-in Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g) support and helps people find their way with its GPS capabilities.

Even though Orange is thinking about pulling the BlackBerry Bold from its device lineup, the carrier is still fully committed to BlackBerry, though at a decidedly more low cost scale. Our pal Ronen from BerryReview has noticed that Orange UK has posted the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 in Titanium and Indigo as ‘coming soon’ with a pay-as-you-go option. As you probably remember, RIM ceo-Jim Balsillie indicated during the fiscal Q3 2009 conference call that pre-paid BlackBerry options would be a growing trend worldwide.

Pricing information is unavailable at this time, but you can hit the link below to sign up for email notifications from Orange.

When we first reported that Orange UK was suspending BlackBerry Bold shipments due to ongoing technical problems — unexplained crashes, poor reception and dropped calls — it was a serious blow to RIM. Flagship products are supposed to be, well, a company’s standard bearer, and (on Orange UK at least) the BlackBerry Bold was waving the white flag.

However, at the time the issues were attributed to a launch OS that was… less than robust. Orange reinstated the BlackBerry Bold with the updated OS 4.6.0.162, but this has apparently not solved the problem. We hope for RIM’s sake that they can get this situation under control before Orange pulls the Bold permanently, but Orange customers deserve a BlackBerry that works. Perhaps an update to a new OS (4.6.0.190 perhaps?) will get the job done.

Uh-oh. This isn’t good news for the boys and girls in Waterloo. It looks like AT&T isn’t the only carrier having trouble with the BlackBerry Bold. Mobile Tech Addicts got their hands on this internal Orange UK document that speaks for itself:

Following reports of software issues with the BlackBerry Bold handset across a variety of mobile operators, Orange has decided to act in the interest of its customers by suspending shipments of the device in the UK. We are currently awaiting feed back from RIM as to when an industry wide fix for these issues will be in place, and expect this suspension to be an interim measure. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause you.

Next steps: BlackBerry/RIM are doing everything they can to resolve this issue and will be completing full testing and validation to ensure future handsets do not have any quality issues. This may take a couple of weeks so it’s up to us to do what’s best for our customers.

I hope this doesn’t start a trend. Can any Orange users report back to us if they’ve experienced any Bold issues? Do any of the hardcore cellular readers know if there are similarities between Orange and AT&T’s networks?

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/10/10/orange-uk-suspending-blackberry-bold-shipments/feed/20Orange launches BlackBerry Bold in Romaniahttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/09/16/orange-launches-blackberry-bold-in-romania/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/09/16/orange-launches-blackberry-bold-in-romania/#commentsTue, 16 Sep 2008 14:08:29 +0000http://www.blackberrycool.com/?p=8505Did anyone else notice during Jim Balsillie’s keynote at CTIA how he always prefaced the AT&T Bold launch in early October with the word ‘hopefully’? I wonder why he didn’t also mention how hopeful he was for Orange and our Romanian friends? Busting right out of Bucharest, Orange and RIM jointly announced the launch of the BlackBerry Bold in Romania today. Part of the France Telecom group, Orange is nothing to sneeze at with 10 million subscribers in Romania, making it at least as big as Rogers here in the frozen North.

The BlackBerry Bold, already available for Orange corporate customers, can now be found in Orange storefronts, ranging from 349 Euros – 439 Euros depending on the BlackBerry smartphone tariff plan chosen.

Bucharest, Romania and Waterloo, On., Canada – Orange and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the launch of the new 3G-enabled BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphone in Romania.

With the powerful BlackBerry Bold smartphone, Orange customers can benefit from high-speed data transfer on HSDPA networks around the world, integrated GPS and Wi-Fi®, as well as a rich set of communications and multimedia capabilities. Featuring a lusterous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and stylish leatherette backplate, the BlackBerry Bold is a symbol of both accomplishment and aspiration. In addition to its robust feature set and elegant design, the BlackBerry Bold comes with a stunning display, sophisticated and intuitive user interface and newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard, making it a ‘must have’ for business professionals and power users.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone provides wireless access to email, phone, calendar, web, multimedia and many other business and lifestyle applications. Through its integrated GPS, the BlackBerry Bold can pinpoint its exact location to support a variety of location-based applications and services. It also comes with BlackBerry® Maps for easy access to directions.

“The new BlackBerry Bold smartphone represents a tremendous step forward in business-grade smartphones and lives up to its name with incredible functionality and performance. Customers around the world are reacting very positively to the BlackBerry Bold and we are pleased to work with Orange to bring this impressive smartphone to their customers in Romania,” said Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, RIM.

BlackBerry Bold smartphone features include:

* Dimensions: 114 x 66 x 15 mm. Approximate weight (including removable battery) 136g.
* Elegant design made from premium materials.
* Half VGA (480×320 resolution at 217 ppi) colour LCD presents stunning image quality.
* Newly designed precision keyboard allows fast and accurate typing.
* Support for tri-band HSDPA and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) high-speed networks, together with next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor, enable video streaming, file downloading and rendering of web pages with high performance.
* Integrated GPS, further enhanced with improved rendering capabilities and faster download speeds.
* Includes 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory, as well as a microSD/SDHC* memory card slot that is conveniently accessible from a side door. As an added bonus, Orange is including a 1GB microSD card.
* Newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-sharp display give users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in “Page View” or “Column View” or to point-and-click in order to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while different emulation settings allow users to choose between tdesktop-style HTML content and and the mobile version of web pages. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP – real-time streaming protocol).
* Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be edited directly on the handset using the preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go® software suite.
* 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, built-in flash and digital zoom.
* Numerous premium phone features including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD) and Bluetooth® 2.0, with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including car kits that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile) and other Bluetooth peripherals.
* For managing music and video, the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software includes Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry as well as Roxio Photosuite® 9 LE, which makes it easy to enhance pictures and create photo albums on the computer. For users that manage their music collection with iTunes®, the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application provides a simple way to sync iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone**. Support for High Speed USB 2.0 allows files to be transferred quickly from a computer to the BlackBerry Bold smartphone.
* BlackBerry® Internet Service support that allows access to up to 10 supported personal and corporate e-mail accounts, including most popular ISP e-mail accounts.
* BlackBerry® Enterprise Server support for enterprise deployments, providing advanced security and IT administration in IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange, and Novell® GroupWise® environments.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone is available now for Orange corporate customers and will be available in all Orange shops from 15th September. Prices range from 349 Euros – 439 Euros depending on the BlackBerry smartphone tariff plan chosen.

About Orange
Orange is the market leader in Romania with 10.088 million customers, as of the first half 2008. It is part of the France Telecom Group, one of the largest communications company worldwide, with over 173 million users on five continents.

At the end of June 2008, Orange Romania had revenues of EUR 321 million, showing an increase by 8.8% in the second quarter as compared to the same period of the previous year. In order to be closer to its customers, Orange developed a large network of stores, counting 90 locations throughout the country.

Orange Romania’s network provides the widest coverage and excellent performance in services offered to its customers. Orange means the desire to create a better future and to offer a communication experience as simple and as intuitive as possible. Orange stands for more than technology, mobile telephony or GSM networks. It is a brand created to facilitate communication among people and add value in the communities where it operates. The France Telecom Group has a well-defined strategy for corporate social responsibility that helps Orange Romania conducted its business responsibly.

For more information please access www.orange.ro.

About Research In Motion (RIM)
Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications. RIM’s portfolio of award-winning products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations around the world and include the BlackBerry® wireless platform, the RIM Wireless Handheld™ product line, software development tools, radio-modems and software/hardware licensing agreements. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. RIM is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM). For more information, visit www.rim.com or www.BlackBerry.com.

Forward-looking statements in this news release are made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used herein, words such as “intend” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions made by and information available to Research In Motion Limited. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, possible product defects and product liability, risks related to international sales and potential foreign currency exchange fluctuations, the initiation or outcome of litigation, acts or potential acts of terrorism, international conflicts, significant fluctuations of quarterly operating results, changes in Canadian and foreign laws and regulations, continued acceptance of RIM’s products, increased levels of competition, technological changes and the successful development of new products, dependence on third-party networks to provide services, dependence on intellectual property rights, and other risks and factors detailed from time to time in RIM’s periodic reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and other regulatory authorities. RIM has no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. RIM, Research In Motion and BlackBerry are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be pending or registered in other countries. Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. RIM assumes no obligations or liability and makes no representation, warranty, endorsement or guarantee in relation to any aspect of any third party products or services.

* MicroSD/SDHC memory cards are available today in configurations of up to 8GB and the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is expected to support upcoming 16GB microSD/SDHC cards.

**Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/09/16/orange-launches-blackberry-bold-in-romania/feed/0Orange UK to get BlackBerry Bold out before T-Mobilehttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/08/12/orange-uk-gets-blackberry-bold-out-before-t-mobile/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/08/12/orange-uk-gets-blackberry-bold-out-before-t-mobile/#commentsTue, 12 Aug 2008 13:00:27 +0000http://www.blackberrycool.com/?p=8096That T-Mobile BlackBerry 9000 launch last week was apparently limited to business customers only. Well, Orange will be offering the device to the public at large well beforehand – maybe as soon as August 16th., this Saturday, with rates going for around £45 monthly. The Carphone Warehouse will be right behind them, launching around the 21st. with a £40 plan. Between Vodafone, 3 Mobile, Orange, and The Carphone Warehouse, it sounds like the UK will be set for options when it comes to picking up the BlackBerry Bold. Considering features like Wi-Fi, GPS, HSDPA 3G, and a nice, crisp, half-VGA screen, no doubt all those carriers will have no problems finding some buyers.

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/08/12/orange-uk-gets-blackberry-bold-out-before-t-mobile/feed/0BlackBerry 8700 gets OS 4.5http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/07/28/blackberry-8700-gets-os-45/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/07/28/blackberry-8700-gets-os-45/#commentsMon, 28 Jul 2008 12:38:01 +0000http://www.blackberrycool.com/?p=7909Not one to be taken out back just yet, the BlackBerry 8700 can now get in on all of the OS 4.5 fun that the Curve, Pearl and 8800 have recently received. The guts didn’t change too much from the BlackBerry 8700 to the BlackBerry 8100, so you’ll likely see them both supported until they’re kicked to the curb. Do you guys think the 8700 will make the OS 4.6 cut? 4.7? You can grab the latest handheld software for the BlackBerry 8700 from Orange Romania here. They’ve also got the software for a bunch of other devices if you haven’t upgraded yet.

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/07/28/blackberry-8700-gets-os-45/feed/46OS 4.5 available from Orange UKhttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/07/17/os-45-available-from-orange-uk/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/07/17/os-45-available-from-orange-uk/#commentsThu, 17 Jul 2008 13:35:05 +0000http://www.blackberrycool.com/?p=7823The latest BlackBerry operating system has been making the rounds by way of private beta builds for awhile now, but it looks like a few carriers are starting to make them publicly available, including Orange UK for the BlackBerry 8120 and BlackBerry 8320, as well as TIM Italy for the 8100, 8300 and 8310. Odds are these will work hunky-dory for your own device, so feel free to give ‘em a shot and get on fresh goodies like HTML e-mail viewing (if your BIS supports it), remote e-mail lookup, native document viewing, and plenty more.

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/07/17/os-45-available-from-orange-uk/feed/22RIM launches BlackBerry Professional Softwarehttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/01/30/rim-launches-blackberry-professional-software/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/01/30/rim-launches-blackberry-professional-software/#commentsWed, 30 Jan 2008 17:49:45 +0000http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/01/30/006472/Once again Spain gets the goods. The BlackBerry Professional Software that was announced back in November is now available in Spain through Orange. The package is geared towards smaller businesses running on Exchange or Lotus Domino servers and dealing with fewer than 30 devices, and allows two-way synchronization of address books and calendars. If you want to try it out, RIM’s got BlackBerry Professional Express available for single users, which can then be expanded as you get more BlackBerrys to manage.

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]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2008/01/30/rim-launches-blackberry-professional-software/feed/2BlackBerry 8320 and 8120 both hit Orange UKhttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/11/28/blackberry-8320-and-8120-both-hit-orange-uk/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/11/28/blackberry-8320-and-8120-both-hit-orange-uk/#commentsWed, 28 Nov 2007 14:36:31 +0000http://blackberrycool.com/2007/11/28/006150/In a dual cyclone of Wi-Fi awesomeness, the BlackBerry 8120 and 8320 have both hit Orange UK. All the usual goodies are here, inluding Wi-fi (with UMA voice support), 3.5 mm headphone jack, video capture on a 2 megapixel camera, and the push e-mail we all know and love.
]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/11/28/blackberry-8320-and-8120-both-hit-orange-uk/feed/0Orange launches BlackBerry 8320 in Spainhttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/11/14/orange-launches-blackberry-8320-in-spain/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/11/14/orange-launches-blackberry-8320-in-spain/#commentsWed, 14 Nov 2007 15:22:40 +0000http://blackberrycool.com/2007/11/14/006054/Josep just posted on the Spanish release of the BlackBerry 8320 with Wi-Fi. The specs are pretty much the same as the original Curve, save for the Wi-Fi and an upgraded 2 megapixel camera. The 3.5 mm headphone jack, stereo Bluetooth, and microSDHC support are all there, cementing them as standard features for new BlackBerrys. The 8320 will be filling out Orange’s Wi-Fi BlackBerry lineup next to the previously-released BlackBerry 8820, which has been on shelves since August. No word on price yet… Any Spanish-speakers able to dig one out of the site?
]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/11/14/orange-launches-blackberry-8320-in-spain/feed/0Report: Simplicity sells cellshttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/08/20/report-simplicity-sells-cells/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/08/20/report-simplicity-sells-cells/#commentsMon, 20 Aug 2007 16:36:27 +0000http://blackberrycool.com/2007/08/20/005412/A recent report by Continental Research is showing that the vast majority of mobile users just want basic functionality, and advanced features go largely unused. The survey talked to users on O2 (who got top marks for customer service), T-Mobile, Orange and Vodafone asking subscribers if they’d prefer a less expensive, simple phone or a pricier one with all the trimmings. It’s not only that adoption of extra functions has been low, but it’s actually been shrinking over the last three years. For example, in 2005 18% of surveyed cellphone users had downloaded a ringtone in the last year, versus 10% in 2007. That gives the iPhone some hard numbers to back up its philosophy of user-friendliness, no doubt. As BlackBerry users, do you guys tend to stick with just voice and e-mail, or do you dabble in the extras, like music and GPS? Are BlackBerry users maybe more predisposed to using advanced features?

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/08/20/report-simplicity-sells-cells/feed/22BlackBerry 8820 coming to Spain firsthttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/08/09/blackberry-8820-coming-to-spain-first/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/08/09/blackberry-8820-coming-to-spain-first/#commentsThu, 09 Aug 2007 11:57:19 +0000http://blackberrycool.com/?p=5302There might be rumors of seeing the new Wi-Fi enabled BlackBerry 8820 on North American shores in another week or so, but the European release has been officially confirmed on Orange, and will be out in Spain by mid-August. The new device will be packing both data transfer and GAN voice handoff when in Wi-Fi range. Outside of that, it’s looking more or less just like an 8800, complete with GPS, with the added bonus of being RIM’s slimmest device to date, as well as supporting high-capacity microSD cards. Spain’s been a bit of a hotbed lately, what with their Pearl 2 launch announcement yesterday.

Madrid and Waterloo, Canada – Orange Spain and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today introduced the BlackBerry® 8820 smartphone in Spain, which will be commercially available from Orange Spain in mid-August.

The BlackBerry 8820 is the first dual-mode BlackBerry handset that combines EDGE/GPRS/GSM cellular and Wi-Fi® connectivity for data access and voice support through UMA (unlicensed mobile access), which reinforces Orange’s convergence strategy and is compatible with its “Unico Empresas” service. The handset supports the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi standards to provide access over Wi-Fi connections in the enterprise, through public hotspots and wireless home networks.

To meet various security requirements for users accessing a Wi-Fi connection, the BlackBerry 8820 is compliant with Wi-Fi security protocols including WEP (Wireless Equivalency Protocol), WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA2, as well as Cisco Compatible Extensions for simple, secure connectivity with Cisco wireless solutions. For enterprises that require Wi-Fi users to access the corporate network through a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

The BlackBerry 8820 also includes built-in GPS (Global Positioning System) that provides support for a wide range of location based applications and services. This smartphone from Orange Spain also comes with BlackBerry® Maps pre-installed, providing users step-by-step with driving directions.

The BlackBerry 8820 features a highly tactile full QWERTY keyboard, large ultra bright landscape display, RIM’s user-friendly trackball navigation system and best-in-class voice and data functionality. It also includes a microSD expansion memory slot that supports both microSD (up to 2GB) and microSDHC (4GB to 32GB) memory cards. Four GB memory cards are available today, and the microSD industry expects 8GB cards will be available later this year.

For individuals and smaller businesses, BlackBerry® Internet Service allows users to access up to ten corporate and personal email accounts (including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and most popular ISP email accounts) from a single device.

For further information go to: www.blackberry.com

Forward-looking statements in this news release are made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used herein, words such as “intend” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions made by and information available to Research In Motion Limited. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, possible product defects and product liability, risks related to international sales and potential foreign currency exchange fluctuations, the initiation or outcome of litigation, acts or potential acts of terrorism, international conflicts, significant fluctuations of quarterly operating results, changes in Canadian and foreign laws and regulations, continued acceptance of RIM’s products, increased levels of competition, technological changes and the successful development of new products, dependence on third-party networks to provide services, dependence on intellectual property rights and other risks and factors detailed from time to time in RIM’s periodic reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and other regulatory authorities. The Company has no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. RIM, Research In Motion and BlackBerry are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be pending or registered in other countries. RIM assumes no liability and makes no representation, warranty or guarantee in relation to third party products or services.

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/08/09/blackberry-8820-coming-to-spain-first/feed/8Orange gets BlackBerry 8820 firsthttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/07/24/orange-gets-blackberry-8820-first/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/07/24/orange-gets-blackberry-8820-first/#commentsTue, 24 Jul 2007 14:58:16 +0000http://blackberrycool.com/2007/07/24/005193/While our friends in the States are still trying to figure out when AT&T will be getting the BlackBerry 8820, UK carrier Orange beat everyone to the punch and announced the launch of the Wi-Fi enabled device today.

Other than Wi-Fi sexiness, the BlackBerry 8820 features increased MicroSD memory capacity, but sadly, no 3G. No pricing info yet, but you can go here for more details on the device.

]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/07/24/orange-gets-blackberry-8820-first/feed/4BlackBerry for 3 carriers under one roofhttp://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/07/11/blackberry-for-3-carriers-under-one-roof/
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/07/11/blackberry-for-3-carriers-under-one-roof/#commentsWed, 11 Jul 2007 19:29:34 +0000http://blackberrycool.com/2007/07/11/005074/For any of our UK readers, you might want to check out the Carphone Warehouse, who are the first to be distributing BlackBerrys across three carriers: O2, T-Mobile and Orange. Right now they’re carrying the BlackBerry 8100, the BlackBerry 8300, and the BlackBerry 8800. Although it’s out of stock right now, the only handset that you’d be paying for is the 8300, and even then it’s only £39.99. The Warehouse is also throwing in 1 GB microSD cards just for signing up. If you ever decide you want to switch to another carrier, you can get up to £20 off on your next phone with a trade-in. Not too shabby at all!
]]>http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/07/11/blackberry-for-3-carriers-under-one-roof/feed/6